Axis History Forum

This is an apolitical forum for discussions on the Axis nations and related topics hosted by Marcus Wendel's Axis History Factbook in cooperation with Christian Ankerstjerne’s Panzerworld and Christoph Awender's WW2 day by day.
Founded in 1999.

Ernie-M, BEWARE OF ALL THE FAKES of these out there.....Both rubber and metal versions are heavily reproduced and mounted on vintage handles.....so if you want to specialize in these, you need to know both German lettering styles and proper formation of "Units, addresses, locations, and the like"....as well as have studied period "stamp markings" to know what they should look like......

Originals are quite scarce.....in over 50 years of collecting I've only turned maybe a half dozen out of the "woodwork"....but have seen literally 1,000s of supposedly originals for sale.....many with the same "text", and many are completely "fantasy" stamps.....

Unless you know you stuff.....I'd hold off "going crazy".....both rubber and metal stamps are relatively easy to reproduce by a skilled craftsman.....and how would you know??????

Most "big" dealers handle "Document stamps".....which ones are on the "up and up" you'd have to determine for yourself.Good luck.....John G.

John gives good advice. Most of the metal stamps you will encounter are simply fakes, made mostly in Eastern Europe. These very often are mounted to a sort of lathe-turned round handle that is a hallmark of these kind of fakes, that you should learn to recognize. Original document stamps are very scarce.

Ditto. Owned and sold some over the years. Anymore, they make my teeth itch just to look at them. Knew a guy in the mid-80's that put me off of stamps then, may still have a couple he gave me for Christmas with a bottle of something. Even labels give me an itch now. You are a better man than me if you can buy them and know they are right. In retrospect, wonder if the ones that "smelled right" were any good either.